When a user purchases a new mobile device (for example, a tablet or smart phone), after the user takes the device out of box and powers it up, the device will display a series of screens. These screens will help the user to setup his device, as well as allow sufficient time for the device modem to register and connect to the wireless network. These screens are called the Setup Wizard.
The current design of Setup Wizard is based on the assumption that the mobile device has a valid paid account provisioned on the service provider's wireless data network; the Setup Wizard also assumes the device modem will complete wireless network registration and account activation within certain a time before the user is prompted to login or setup his email account during Setup Wizard. Thus the screen display duration for each screen in the Setup Wizard is timer based.
With the rapid growth of smart phone and tablet market, more and more customers are able to purchase a mobile device without a pre-provisioned account, or with only month-to-month prepay account. When powering up such a device, the current Setup Wizard design is not able to deliver an accurate message on the device subscription status to the customer, the customer will get an error message about account activation failure, and the only option for the customer is to power off the device, call the service provider's customer service number, or walk to the service provider's retail store to sign up a data plan in order to use this mobile device. This leads to a negative user experience.
These and other drawbacks exist.